Description

Noah's Ark Deluxe is a matching game centered around the Christian tale of Noah who needs to take two animals of each species aboard his ark before god floods the earth. Players need to match animals to clear them from the board. In most included game modes, this needs to be done before the upcoming water reaches the ark shown on the left side of the screen. This acts as the time limit and players are given points based on the remaining distance. When the water hits the ark, the game is over. The game can be played on different difficulty levels, based on the speed of the water and the diversity of the animals that need to be matched. There are three main game modes.

Action
In a series of levels, players need to match animals two by two to make them disappear from the board. The animals do no need to be next to each other, as long as they can reach each other without an obstacle in the way (in a path of horizontal and/or vertical steps, not diagonal). Players need to click each animal for the pair, or drag one to another. When a part of the board is cleared, it becomes easier to find matches. When no more moves are possible, some animals disappear at a loss of points until new matches become possible. Players are awarded points for each match as well as the remaining distance of the water to the ark before clearing the level. Every few boards, there a Stampede Round bonus level where groups of three identical animals need to be clicked quickly to make them disappear and to keep the climbing stack from reaching the top of the screen.

Strategy
This mode is fairly identical to Action with the major difference that matched animals not only disappear, but also cause the animals and other types of blocks on top of it to drop down, reshuffling the level and sometimes even trapping animal blocks. There are also no bonus rounds. Apart from that, the gameplay is the same.

Puzzle
This game mode is completely different and uses the typical Match-3 gameplay from such games as Bejeweled. The board is filled with animals (no other blocks) and each animal's position can be swapped with one next to it. That way, matches of three animals or more, in a horizontal or vertical line, need to be formed. They disappear and new animals appear from the top of the screen, filling the board. The game is over when no new matches are possible.